


How to Trust an Iceberg

by Ramblingandpie



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Destroy Ending, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Or as slow a burn can be in 11k words, Post-Canon, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23132512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ramblingandpie/pseuds/Ramblingandpie
Summary: After the Reapers and their forces disappear, there is still a lot of work to do. Ashley, recovering from injuries, finds that Miranda seems to be involved in everything. She takes it as her duty to investigate.
Relationships: Miranda Lawson/Ashley Williams
Comments: 14
Kudos: 29
Collections: Spectre Requisitions 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [joufancyhuh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joufancyhuh/gifts).



The pain was not the problem. Ashley Williams could handle pain. But she felt pretty useless, stuck in a makeshift hospital, waiting for any news.

And she was bored.

She was used to thinking three steps ahead, anticipating orders, anticipating danger. Now she just had a steady unease, wondering if it was really over.

It had been two weeks since Shepard had gone through the portal. She kept fighting, holding another area with some of the local ground troops, praying that Shepard would be able to find… well, whatever it was that he must have found up on the Citadel. Not before two Brutes pinned down her group. She had just lined up a sniper shot right into the first one’s maw when the other took the opportunity to fling her into a cement wall. Somehow, despite the broken ribs, she managed to fling some grenades under it and had the satisfaction of seeing it go airborne.

After that? Things got hazy. There were still wild stories flying around, but it was clear that the Reapers themselves disintegrated. The husks and assorted monstrosities simply ceased functioning.

Cleanup and recovery efforts were already underway. But with more people injured than able to assist, things were going very slowly. She could hear the bustle all around her. The first week, equipment was constantly being flown in as the makeshift hospital, and the numbers of wounded that it held, continually expanded.

The one time she had tried to help had earned her a stern scolding from the medic. They didn’t have the equipment yet to help confirm their suspicions about the extent of her injuries, but it sounded like she wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.

At least, after that, things did improve. A new contingent of medics, doctors, nurses, and even custodial staff arrived from somewhere off-world. Earlier, they’d clearly been trying to salvage whatever could be flown in from earth, but the ship that arrived had a cargo bay full of scanners and emergency equipment.

Phoenix, their uniforms said. Aid organization, they said whenever anyone asked. Whatever it was, it was appreciated.

Still, though. There wasn’t a lot to ease the boredom. The new scanners confirmed initial suspicions, and she was two weeks into bedrest with at least two more to go.

Halfway into the third week, she woke up to a thick envelope beside her. She pushed herself up onto her pillows so she was somewhat upright. Her name was written in a neat cursive hand on the envelope.

She tore it open. It contained a thin datapad, a leather book, a pen, and a note.

“Ashley- I understand you are on bedrest. Hopefully these will help pass the time. We’re still working on getting non-military internet, so I had it pre-loaded with some classics. The book is in case you want to make your own. -Miranda Lawson, Phoenix.”

Miranda Lawson. She sighed. The two had only met briefly in person on Horizon, where Miranda hadn’t made a good impression, and she mostly knew Miranda by reputation.

It wasn’t a good reputation.

Still, she though, as she scrolled through the books that were loaded onto the datapad, she couldn’t argue that whoever had picked out the selection had good taste.

She picked up the book. It had no words on the cover, just a plain brown leather that was surprisingly soft under her thumbs. She opened it up to the first page. She was greeted with blank lines. She smiled as she flipped through the pages. All blank. So that was what the pen was for.

She wasn’t quite up for originality, so she set the journal gently on the small table beside her bed and picked up the datapad. At least she wouldn’t be quite as bored.

\---

Another week passed. She’d made it through several novels, and even with the datapad, the boredom was setting in.

She sat staring at the blank pages, the journal resting on her knees, a growing collection of dots forming under the spot where she tapped the pen. She doodled squiggles and spirals, and colored in tiny triangles.

No words. No words out, and no words in. She was growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of information. She’d given up asking about Phoenix. The staff was now about half Alliance, half Phoenix, but she hadn’t received any official word about what was going on. The furthest she could walk was the bathroom, and even that had her needing to rest for an hour after.

She was interrupted from her thoughts, halfway through doodling a flame, by the sound of cheering. It soon became clear when an aide poked their head into the room and announced. “Internet’s back up. It’s limited to e-mail. We have a few datapads for loaning out if you need one.”

Ashley shook her head. “I’m set.” The aide gave her a wide grin and thumbs-up before going to the next room to share the news.

She tucked the pen into the journal like a bookmark and tossed it aside in favor of the datapad.

There was only a small handful of messages. Usually, after not checking it for a few weeks, which was something she was prone to doing, she would come back to scores of e-mails. Her family liked to keep in touch, and she was on a few mailing lists for new anthologies. Up until now, though, no-one had been able to send anything without a military connection.

She began clicking through.

*

From: James Vega

Subject: Where you at?

Ash-

Where’d you end up after we split? We circled and ended up back at base. Hope you get this. 

-JV

*

From: Alliance - Official Communication

Subject: All troops report in

All troops reply with name, ID number, and location when you access this message. Please report any tags.

*

From: Miranda Lawson

Subject: Recovery

Ashley,

I hope that the books helped pass the time. Please let me know if you’d like any specific titles and I’ll have them forwarded.

I understand you’ll be discharged soon. I’ve converted one of my father’s homes outside London into recovery housing. You are more than welcome to one of the guest rooms.

Please let me know if you need anything.

Miranda Lawson

Phoenix

*

She replied first to the troop inventory, and then let James know she was in the hospital.

She opened a reply to Miranda’s e-mail and stared at the blank screen. She sighed, which nearly sent her into a coughing fit from the pain in her ribs. She set the datapad down.

It could wait.

\---

James came the next day. “Man, you are a sight for sore eyes,” he said as he pulled a chair up next to the bed. “Or maybe you’re just a sore sight. Not sure which.”

She laughed, then winced. “Oh, chica, that is not good. I can’t even make you laugh? But it’s the best medicine.”

“Don’t worry, Vega. I can take care of myself. You start breaking my ribs, I’ll throw a grenade under you.”

He laughed. “You don’t have any grenades, Ash.” He raised an eyebrow. “I think.”

“Help me sit up? Just. Gently.”

“Just like a little baby bird,” he promised, and helped arrange the pillows and pull her up so that they were equal level.

They caught each other up on how they got where they were. His group had gone around opposite hers to create a diversion and try to take some of the heat off of Shepard. When Shepard went up to the Citadel, they looped back around to the base to try to leave as much space between themselves and the portal as possible.

“Since then, I’ve been helping with cleanup duty. Even helped transport some of the supplies to this place. Wish I’d known you were here. Shit’s chaos, man.”

“Tell me about it. I was basically thrown on this bed and told not to move, until those Phoenix guys showed up. What’s up with them?”

“Some aid organization,” Vega said. He glanced towards the door, and then leaned in and spoke quietly. “No official word. There’s rumors, though.”

She furrowed her eyebrows. “Rumors about Miranda Lawson?”

He nodded. “Rumor is she started it months ago. I recognized one of the guys who showed up for cleanup duty. Washed out a few years ago and joined Cerberus.”

Ashley scoffed. “Seriously? Can’t we get away from them?”

He held his hands up defensively. “Hey. I don’t know if he was still with ‘em at the end. Hadn’t seen him in years, anyway. And…” he paused for a moment and rubbed the back of his neck, ”honestly, they’re everywhere. Helping. Doing great work. We’d be up shit creek without ‘em.”

“But you’re still worried.”

“Well, yeah. I know Shepard trusted her, but he ain’t here.”

Ashley looked down. “Any sign of him?”

Vega shook his head. “They’ve only sent a few scouting crews up to the Citadel, and there’s a lot of it to cover. They need the resources here on the ground.” He sighed, and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “The crews that have gone up there…” he licked his lips and took another deep breath. “It’s not good. They don’t like to talk about it, but it’s gonna need even more cleanup than London, if you believe it.”

She furrowed her eyebrows. “That bad?”

He nodded. “Theory is that before the Reapers turned on that portal thing, they… uh… turned off the atmosphere.”

Ashley took a few deep breaths.

“Yeah,” he said. “The council didn’t make it. Or, uh, anyone else.”

She leaned forward and hugged her knees. She shut her eyes tight, so tight that she saw stars, to stop the tears before they started.

James laid a hand gently on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I blanked. I should have… I mean. I know you had family there. If you don’t want to talk about it, I’ll shut my trap.”

She nodded, waved his hand away, and leaned back into the pillows. “No council. Spectre chain of command is broken, then. How are things with the Alliance?”

“As good as they can be. We’re working on cleaning up, re-establishing services. Still no contact outside our system, but there are enough eggheads working on it I think it’ll come together soon.”

“Any contact with Normandy?”

He shook his head. She swore again.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything.”

“Thanks.”

They sat in silence for a few moments.

“How long before you get to break out of here?”

“Another week or so. I start some PT tomorrow.”

“Oh, good. They’ll beat the pain out of you.”

She laughed, then grimaced and held her side.

“And hey, maybe they’ll help with your sense of humor.”

He dramatically ducked as though she was going to smack him for the comment. “You jerk,” she said, and continued to alternate between laughing and grimacing.

\---

After he left, she got the datapad back out.

Alliance chain of command was mostly intact, but that allegiance was superseded by her Spectre duties. There weren’t many rules, per se, for being a Spectre. But when the chain of command was broken, each Spectre was expected to do what they could to find more information about what was going on and to use their judgment as to what would be most beneficial for the good of the Council species.

She went into her e-mail archive, and hit reply.

“Miranda,

I’d like to take you up on that offer. I’ll be discharged in about a week if PT goes well. How do I get there?

-Ashley”

Send.

The reply came almost immediately.

“Ashley,

I’ll be sending a transport next week to deliver supplies, and I’ll let them know to pick you up on the way back.

Hope PT goes smoothly. Be well.

-Miranda”

She set the datapad down on the table and settled back into her pillows. She intended to spend some time going over mission parameters in her head, but found that just the time sitting up from the conversation was exhausting, and ended up drifting to sleep.

\---

She survived physical therapy. Vega had stopped by a few times, but there were no changes. 

On the appointed day, she changed out of the hospital gown she’d been wearing and into a set of casual clothes provided by the Phoenix suppliers. Cargo pants, a tank top, and a zip-up fleece. She strapped an ankle brace on over her sock and slipped on the shoes they provided. She put the journal in one cargo pocket, and the datapad in another. She frowned as she realized they were her only personal items. Her armor had been destroyed, and wouldn’t be useful now anyway. Everything else was on the Normandy.

She grew up a military kid. She always traveled light. Her personal effects on the Normandy consisted of a few comfortable outfits, workout gear, and a few books into which she stuffed pictures of her family as bookmarks. It wasn’t much, but it still hurt a bit to realize it might be gone forever.

The woman from Phoenix who came to pick her up couldn’t have been more than 20. Practically a baby. She knocked tentatively on the door, and openly gaped when she saw Ashley.

“Ms. Williams? I’m Amelia Ober. I’m here to escort you to Ms. Lawson’s house.”

“I’m ready,” Ashley responded.

“Do you need help carrying anything?”

Ashley shook her head. “Everything’s in my pockets but this.” She pointed to the rolling walker that had been dropped off that morning. She hated the thing, but had to admit that it helped. The sprained ankle seemed like such a minor part of the injuries, but she couldn’t use crutches due to the rib injuries. She stood and steadied herself with the roller. “Lead the way.”

Amelia nodded. “It’s a great place to recover. Far enough from London that you don’t see… well, everything. Although they’ve cleaned up pretty well around the hospital.” Ashley followed as Amelia guided her through the hallways. Even though Ashley had done several walks around the hospital by this point, everything looked the same, so she was happy for the assistance.

“Ms. Lawson has really transformed it. There are a few physical therapists out there working with everyone who needs, and full gym facilities. I haven’t spent much time there, but it’s real nice. She’s doing a lot of good work. I mean. Not like you. Second human Spectre. Just. Wow.”

Ashley laughed. “Are you nervous, Amelia?”

“A little. I mean. You’re kind of a hero.”

Ashley shook her head. “Just a soldier doing her job. Hey, how long of a ride is it?”

“Just about two hours.” 

Perfect.

When they arrived at the truck, Amelia loaded the roller into the storage, and helped Ashley up into the truck. She pulled a few levers for seats to swing down into the cargo area, and Ashley strapped herself in. Amelia leaned up to the window to let the driver know they were ready, and then buckled herself up.

They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes while Ashley planned her move.

“Have you met Miranda?”

“Oh, I’ve only seen Ms. Lawson a handful of times.”

“But she’s in charge of Phoenix, right? At least that’s what it sounds like.”

Amelia nodded. “She founded it a few months ago.”

“What kinds of things have you done? I hear it’s mostly aid?”

“Yep. Rebuilding. I mostly help with deliveries of supplies and making sure things get to the right place. I grew up here so I’m familiar with how to get around.”

“Must be hard seeing London like this, then.”

Amelia was quiet for a few moments. “It is. But it’s good to be able to help, y’know? Everyone was so focused on defeating the Reapers, but no-one was making a plan for after.” Ashley didn’t respond, and allowed Amelia a few moments, knowing that she would continue her nervous chatter if given enough time. “Which isn’t to say what you did isn’t important. I mean. It was so critical. We’d just be floating awkwardly out by Pluto in stasis if you and Shepard and everyone hadn’t… sorry. I shouldn’t bring it up. I know it might be hard for you to hear about.”

“It’s okay,” Ashley said. Something twinged in her thoughts and she wasn’t sure it was actually okay, but the new mission came first.

“You were in stasis?”

Amelia nodded. “Yeah. We weren’t sure how long things would take, so we did our training months ago, loaded up the supplies and a bunch of people, and waited. Honestly, better in stasis than staring at the walls.”

“Fair enough. Starships aren’t for everyone.”

“Yeah. I never could get used to them.”

“So how’d you end up with Phoenix, anyway? I didn’t hear about any recruitment, so was it all direct, or…?” She trailed off, letting the question dangle. Just because she didn’t like to do interrogations didn’t mean she wasn’t fully trained in them.

Amelia was quiet for a few moments. “Promise you won’t get mad?”

Ashley nodded. “Of course.”

“I wanted to fight so bad. I had some friends from school who went out with their parents to the colonies a few years ago, and… they were gone. No-one was doing anything about it. I thought about enlisting with the Alliance, but it seemed like they weren’t doing anything. So, um, I heard about what Cerberus was doing and I jumped at it.” There it was. “I got through basic training, but it was so weird. The people around me just started really parroting everything like some kind of cult.” A few more moments of quiet. “Anyway, then there was this incident, I guess, and a few of us just left. Everything went kind of bonkers after that so I don’t think anyone ever came after us. But she had the records. Ms. Lawson, I mean. The four of us were hiding out on Omega trying to get by when the recruiter came. Said that they had our profiles, saw that we just wanted to help, and asked if we still wanted to help. If we wanted to help rebuild Earth when the inevitable happened.” She looked down at her knees. “Who would say no to that?”

Ashley sighed. “No-one.”

“Exactly. And so we jumped at the chance. I mean. It didn’t hurt that living on Omega sucked.” She paused. “Man. I wonder how things are there. I heard Cerberus actually came after we left, and trashed the place, so I guess we really lucked out.”

“In more ways than one,” Ashley said. She shuddered. Amelia didn’t seem to notice. Omega had been ugly. Ashley may not have liked Aria, but anyone was better than Petrovsky.

And now she had at least some answers. They led to more questions, as answers tended to do. Why target the Cerberus burnouts? Were there other recruitment chains and efforts? There had to be in order for Phoenix to be the size it was. What kind of resources had Miranda put into things?

Ashley steered the conversation towards more mundane topics. Amelia didn’t seem to notice or mind, and was happy to tell Ashley all about growing up in London, and her soccer team, and did Ashley play soccer? And of course Ashley would be good at soccer because she was good at everything and oh my goodness I still can’t believe I’m escorting a Spectre.

Ashley mostly listened, and asked simple questions to indicate she was still listening, while she mulled the questions over in her mind.

She kept coming back to the same question. 

Why Miranda?

\---

Ashley had seen a lot of things in her life. Space stations of all assorted sizes and conditions, and the impossible architecture of dozens of different species.

She had never seen a castle before. In person, anyway. Sure, she had seen pictures in children’s books. And some fortresses on far-flung planets, erected in the shape of a castle. But a real life, honest-to-goodness castle?

Okay, so there was no moat. Still, the main building of the estate was enormous, built of old stone, covered in moss and ivy. It looked entirely untouched from the invasion. The gardens had clearly been neglected, but the path up from the walk was clear.

“And if you come this way,” Amelia was saying, “We had a ramp put in. You’re not the only one with wheels.”

“I just need a minute to stretch. And to look at this thing.” She felt sore all down her right side from the ride in the truck, so she put her hands on her hips and wiggled her shoulders like they’d shown her in physical therapy.

Amelia smiled. “Like a storybook, isn’t it? She had a team get it all set up and ready to go before the Reapers came to Earth, and then left it empty so it wouldn’t attract attention.”

Ashley smirked. Did Miranda really have a plan for everything?

“Ready?” Amelia asked.

“Ready.” She followed around to the right of the grand entry stairs, where, just as Amelia said, a ramp had been set up.

“This is the entrance,” Amelia announced. “There’s a coatroom off to your left. Everyone who is staying here has a spot with their name on it, and there’s one for you. The big wardrobe at the end of the room has extra outerwear. Feel free to take anything unclaimed that fits you. Oh, hi, Marcus!”

Amelia waved at a man who entered the room. “Amelia! Bringing another resident? Soon we’ll have enough for a book club.”

“Marcus, this is Ashley. Ashley, Marcus.”

He held out his hand. “Wilfred Marcus. 701st.”

She shook his hand. “Ashley Williams.” Before she could continue, he interjected.

“Oh, that needs no further introduction, Williams.”

“Please, call me Ash.”

“Whatever you do, please don’t call me Wilfred.”

They made pleasant small talk, neatly avoiding any conversation about the war, as Amelia showed her around the first floor and Marcus tagged along. They saw a few faces and made quick introductions as they went around. Amelia explained that most of the residents tried to give newcomers space, and that she’d meet most of them in different groups and activities if she wanted.

“I’m just incorrigible,” was Marcus’s reply when asked why he was tagging along.

After she’d seen the first floor’s kitchen and bathrooms, been told where to leave any laundry, knew where the bulletin board for activities was posted, and all the other various and sundry things she would need to know, they arrived.

Amelia announced, “Here’s your room. The first floor rooms are all pretty small, since a lot of them are converted from storage or whatnot, but I think they’re quite cozy.”

Ashley looked in. It was a solo room, which was a rarity both growing up with three sisters, in the marines, and on starships. There was a window above the head of the twin bed, and a small chest with two drawers at the foot. A small closet was immediately to her left, and a table next to the head of the bed clearly doubled as a desk and a nightstand.

“Still bigger than a crew quarters bunk,” Marcus quipped.

“No kidding,” Ashley said. “This is perfect.”

“We’ll leave you to get settled. Dinner is at 6 o’clock - sorry, 1800 hours. I’m still getting used to that part. But if you’re hungry, feel free to help yourself to the snack cabinet.”

They said their goodbyes. It wasn’t until they left the room and Ashley closed the door that the pain hit her. Although she had rested in the truck in-between, that was the most walking she’d done in a single day since before… well, since before. No sense trying to think that much about it.

She unpacked her pockets and lay the book and datapad on the desk, which also housed a computer terminal and a reading lamp. Then, she eased onto the bed, intending to lay down for a few minutes before exploring.

She was woken up by several people talking outside on their way to dinner. She wasn’t quite sure if she was up for that much socialization, but she was hungry. Plus, something smelled good.

She sat up slowly and set her feet on the floor. The room was a bit too small to navigate with the rollator, so she braced her hands on the chair and desk to stand up. Her ankle complained, but quietly. Good.

Before she left, she checked the closet. There was a simple mirror inside, and a bathrobe and nightdress. She almost laughed. Old fashioned castle, old fashioned nightclothes. She peeked into the dresser and was glad to find a pair of plaid flannel pajama pants and a button-up shirt, as well as a few extra pairs of simple cargo pants, tee-shirts, and a hooded sweater. Basics. Better than nothing.

She grabbed the rollator and headed out the door towards the banquet room. She was surprised to see that the enormous room was packed. A classic, solid banquet table had been moved to the end of the room and was flanked by several folding tables. She remembered Amelia mentioning that there weren’t that many bedrooms on the first floor, and realized that most of the people at dinner must live on the second or third floors.

She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she was happy to see that she wasn’t the only one with wheels. She noticed that each table, even the main banquet table, had a few open spots, and people rolled up with wheelchairs or rollators like hers that had a seat attached.

“Ash!” she heard, and saw Marcus waving her over to one of the card tables. A familiar face.

As she walked over, he moved a chair out of the way. She turned her rollator around into the space so she could sit.

Some of the folks at the table already had plates. “See anything you like? I’ll go get you a plate.”

“I’m starved. Is that lasagne?”

“One lasagne, coming up. Oh, Jiyu, this is Ash. Ash, Jiyu,” he said as a woman approached the table.

Others came and sat while Marcus was up at the serving area.

Jiyu implored Ashley to join them the next day at the pool. She had been a lifeguard and swim instructor in her youth, and was leading aqua calisthenics each morning. It turned out that a good portion of the residents were not recovering from injuries themselves, but were Phoenix staff there to assist in recovery efforts. Everyone ate together.

“Except Miranda,” Marcus joked.

“Oh, lay off. I’m pretty sure she survives on coffee alone,” Jiyu replied.

“She’s here?” Ashley asked. That could make things interesting.

“Sometimes,” Jiyu said. “This is the home base, as we like to call it, but she’s out in the field a lot.”

“Her office is up in the tall creepy tower,” Marcus said. He wiggled his fingers at Jiyu as he said it. She laughed.

It wasn’t until later that night that Ashley realized why she felt so hurt when they all laughed. Apart from James’s visit, she had been mostly alone in the hospital for a few weeks. Before that, sure, she had been around the crew of the Normandy, but no-one had laughed or let their guard down since that night at Shepard’s apartment.

She lay in bed that night and stared at the ceiling. Her ribs had gotten a workout at dinner with the laughter, and she was going to bed with a belly full of lasagne and bread pudding. She thought about the other plates she had seen at dinner. All comfort foods that were easy to prepare for a crowd. The type of foods her mom had made when they had the extended family coming over, and had to make a lot of bellies happy.

The tears came slowly. Years of sharing a room with sisters had taught her to cry quietly, facing a wall, because she didn’t want to be interrupted. She squeezed one of the pillows tight as she thought about all of those who were lost. Her sisters, Shepard, Thane. The whole Normandy, as far as she knew, although she had heard over her radio when they evacuated. She prayed that they escaped. Joker, EDI, Tali, Garrus, Liara, Chakwas, and the engineering crew. Everyone else had been on the ground somewhere.

She prayed for them all.


	2. Chapter 2

Ashley had to admit that the pool had felt very good, even though Jiyu warned her she was likely to have some new sore spots later from the exercises. It was nice to move around independently without having to lean on anything. 

She spent some time after the class just floating and letting her mind wander.

A few e-mails had arrived overnight. One from James, checking in, letting her know that he would be there as soon as he could if she sent any indication that she needed a daring rescue. One from Miranda asking to meet before lunchy. Apparently, Miranda needed her help on something. Of course Miranda hadn’t said in the e-mail what she needed help with.

All Ashley could think was that the other shoe was going to drop.

Jiyu eventually shooed her out of the pool, as another class was going to start soon. She showered and changed into a set of clean clothes, just as plain as the previous. Gray sweatpants, navy blue tee shirt.

She looked at the time on her omnitool. Might as well get it over with.

She grabbed her wheels and walked to the first floor meeting room. There was a little screen by the door with the day’s schedule. 

0600: Early Riser’s Yoga

0900: Meditation Group

1100: Private meeting

1400: Learn to Play Chess with Dave

It was a bit early. A few people were still in the room. Two men were playing chess in a corner; a woman looked like she might be napping in one of the large armchairs. The table used for larger meetings was still folded up, leaning against the wall, presumably to make room for the yoga crew.

She scoped out the bookshelf. There was a pretty good selection. A piece of paper conspicuously tucked in at eye level had instructions to jot down any titles people were looking for, and they’d be brought down from the upstairs library if it had a copy. Not the same as being able to browse. Still, better than nothing.

Her hand hovered over a well-worn copy of Little Women. She took it off of the shelf and turned it over in her hands. The spine was cracked to the point of being soft, and the page edges were dark with fingerprint smudges. She had read it so many times as a comfort, this almost looked like her own childhood copy. At the particular moment, however, something in the back of her mind warned her away. She set it back on the shelf and looked over the other options. Mostly Western classics. Hemingway, Shakespeare, LeGuin. There were a number of books in other languages, as well. She could use her Omnitool’s translator, if she really wanted.

She ended up sitting in an overstuffed armchair with no book. The sunlight streamed through the window right onto her spot. It was incredibly cozy.

The chess players wrapped up their game and wished her a good day on their way out.

She didn’t check her omnitool, but would have bet odds that Miranda’s arrival was 1100 hours on the dot. The door opened, and in she came. She set two mugs of hot coffee on the table, went over to the sleeping woman, leaned down, placed a hand on her shoulder, and gently informed her that the room was reserved but they would be done soon. The woman sheepishly apologized, “hadn’t meant to doze off like that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Miranda said. “It reassures me that this old furniture is comfortable.” She smiled that wide, perfected smile.

Once they had the room to themselves, she sat across from Ashley.

Ashley couldn’t help herself. “Ditched the catsuit, huh?” She remembered one of her instructors back in the day talking about the importance of throwing an enemy off guard. She wasn’t sure yet if Miranda was an enemy, but it didn’t hurt.

Miranda laughed. She was actually wearing the same outfit as Ashley, with colors switched. Navy blue sweatpants, gray tee-shirt. “And glad for it.” She smiled with perfect teeth on display. “But I know you probably have more serious questions for me than that. I’m happy to answer anything I can.”

Ashley shrugged. “You first. Your e-mail said you needed help with something.”

“Right to the point. Somehow, I’m not surprised.” Miranda picked up her mug of coffee and took a sip. She sighed, then continued. “So first let me catch you up on the state of things. I know you probably know some of this, so please bear with me if I’m repeating myself. The Relays are down.” Ashley nodded. “Okay. I’m sure you grasp the wider implications of that. No contact outside our system. Everything’s in disarray. We’re trying to stabilize things in this system as best we can.”

“We being Phoenix, correct?”

Miranda nodded, and continued. “We have teams working on the Relays. We’re starting to get small bits of information, signals. Nothing more than that. Which leads me to this.” She gestured at her omni-tool and it displayed a sequence of numbers and letters.

“As far as we can tell, it’s Spectre encryption.”

Ashley steeled her face and did her best to show no response. “So you need me to decode it for you.”

Miranda nodded.

“What will you do with the information if I do?”

Miranda practically scoffed. “Prioritize getting the Relay pointed to the right system so that we can send a rescue team. I have one on standby. Our fastest ship. Enough room to evac everyone. Full medical bay. Then, a team of engineers to start work on the Relay at the other end.” She paused and closed her eyes. “Scout’s honor.”

They sat in silence for a few moments while Ashley weighed the pros and cons.

The Williams curse. Even though she had received excellent marks for her ability to lead teams, higher-ups had wondered if she inherited her grandfather’s decision-making. Now, here she was, with a chain of command of one. No-one to tell her what to do. She took a deep breath. She thought a small prayer.

“Normandy is on Ilos.”

Miranda beamed. She gestured at her omni-tool again. “Jacob, it’s Ilos.”

“Affirmative,” Ashley heard from the other end.

“I’d hug you, but I think you’d clock me,” Miranda said. “If we hear anything else, you’ll be the first to know. And not just because I’ll need you to decode it.”

“That’s it?” Ashley asked.

Miranda nodded. “That’s it. And now I do have to get back to my office.”

“Up in the tower?”

Miranda shrugged. “The office was set up before I got here. Didn’t make sense to take resources to move it. Happy to show you around once you’re up to it.”

“Wait. What was this building before you moved in?”

Miranda sighed. “I did say I’d answer any of your questions, didn’t I. It’s been in the family for years. We used to take vacations here when I was a child. It was one of the few times I was allowed to read whatever I wanted instead of just school books.” She paused. “This is a much better use for it, though, I think.”

\--

She sat in her room, the copy of Little Women on her desk, next to A Farewell to Arms. What interested her more, however, was the blank journal. She flipped through each page and couldn’t find anything strange about it. Realistically, it was the best place to take notes, as long as she kept it with her. The datapad and terminal were, no doubt, monitored in some way.

She flipped to a blank page and hunched over the desk with her pen. She jotted down the things she knew.

Phoenix. Founded and run by Miranda Lawson. With what resources? Who else was at the top? Miranda had directed Jacob regarding the rescue of the Normandy, and while it was a common enough name, the voice from the other end had sounded enough like Jacob Taylor that she was fairly certain it was the same man. So. Ex-Cerberus, like some of the others she had met.

Jiyu hadn’t mentioned anything to that effect, just that she was a former swim instructor. Cerberus probably didn’t have much use for those.

The page was quickly covered. Half-formed ideas had arrows drawn to other half-formed ideas, which had arrows to question marks.

She scribbled over her work, tore the page out, and crumpled it. She looked up at the ceiling and sighed. It had probably been naive to think she could answer anything with the limited information that she had.

She took a deep breath. At least she had been able to prioritize some questions. First: talk to more of the Phoenix crew and see what their stories were. Second: get her body strong enough to do the stairs.

She stood and went to the door of her room. No time like the present. She walked past the rollator and into the hallway. She gingerly put her full weight on her foot, making sure to stand solidly like they had shown her in PT.

Just a few laps up and down would be a good start.

\--

Ashley had regrets.

When she woke up in the morning, it was like someone had her whole torso in a vise, and her ankle was throbbing.

Maybe doing the pool and the laps had been too much. Still, she recalled what James had told her. PT was having the pain beaten out of you.

She rolled to her side and pushed up to sitting. Then, a set of circles with both feet to loosen things up. She planted both feet firmly on the floor and wiggled her toes. She pushed herself to standing.

As the pain radiated up her leg, she thought briefly that she didn’t actually have to do any of this. She could just climb right back under the covers. If she e-mailed Marcus, he would probably bring her breakfast.

She shook her head to snap herself out of it. There was work to do.

She got her clothes together and went to the pool. They had a small locker room set up in the pool house, so she went right in her pajamas. No sense getting dressed just to get changed immediately after.

The bathing suit was right where she had left it the previous day, on a hook that had her name on a piece of tape above it. She parked the rollator, stashed her clothes on its seat, pulled the suit on, and rinsed off quickly in the shower. Her plan was running through her mind. The class would help with her body and hopefully she could squeeze more information from the instructor.

“I have to say, Ash, I’m surprised to see you today,” Jiyu said when Ashley stepped out onto the deck. “Most people have to skip a day after they first start.”

Ashley smiled. “After everything else, I’m not going to let a pool stop me.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Jiyu led their small group through a warmup, then split them into groups based on swimming ability. Ashley ended up in the deep end, treading water while doing stretches with her arms.

“Hold on to the edge if you need to!” Jiyu instructed. “Sara, bring it down a notch. I don’t want anyone overdoing it and hurting themselves.” She shot a sideways glance at Ashley, who would have protested if her lungs were cooperating. Her mind wandered back to basic training. Why did this seem so much harder? And how was Jiyu making it look easy?

Jiyu laughed when Ashley asked her after the class. “You marines,” she said. “What you do looks hard. And it is! But it’s much harder work to make things look easy. Plus, swimming uses certain muscles and none of you have used them much since basic. I almost think it’s easier to swim long distances than to tread water.”

“Were you a distance swimmer before?”

Jiyu shook her head. “Not competitively. I don’t have the right build for it. Short arms. I always loved it, though, even since I was a baby. Coaching was the only way I could turn it into a career. Good thing I love that part, too.”

“So this is a perfect fit for you, then. How’d you manage to catch this gig?”

Jiyu shrugged. “The school I was teaching in was closing down due to the war. It had barely started and was hardly more than a rumor at that point, but I guess someone in charge must have known something. I was desperate for a job. I was on a message board for swimmers, and some new user put up a post to the job listing. I had nothing to lose so submitted my credentials. Two days later, an interviewer met with me. Three months of training after that, into cryo I went.”

“And that didn’t seem fishy to you?”

Jiyu laughed. “Fishy. Nice one. But no. The way the school brass had bugged out, I knew something big was happening. The plan made sense. Go into cryo to be available for recovery and relief when the war was over, or, if we lost,” she made a zooming motion with her hand, “shoop, off into space we go until it’s safe to wake up.”

Ashley blinked a few times and tried her best not to look shocked.

“I’ll be honest,” Jiyu said, “I lost that betting pool. I figured we’d be starting civilization from scratch.”

\--

Ashley stared at the blank page in front of her. The stories she had gotten out of people were all over the map. About a third had ties to Cerberus, but others? Several people in the kitchen had worked in a school cafeteria together, and all signed up together when the school, like Jiyu’s, had closed. One had been a sous-chef at a five-star restaurant. Two had been KPs on a Cerberus base, and defected when things started going badly.

Almost a week had passed since she started this phase of her mission. She was reliably walking on her own now, and only took the rollator for long walks outside. Several faces had left, returning to London to help there. Several more had arrived as they were released from the hospital. One day saw a huge ship land near one of the secondary buildings, which she now knew housed civilians. Holed up in the catacombs of Paris, the rumor was. They had enough food for a few more weeks and hadn’t even known that the fighting was over.

Her terminal chirped. She expected it to be another message from James, checking in, giving her what status updates he could. She found she looked forward to his messages at least as a distraction from the mission.

*

From: Miranda Lawson

Subject: 1935?

New intel. I’ll be available at 1935. My office?

-Miranda

PS - You could just ask me, you know.

*

Ashley swore. She hadn’t exactly been discreet with asking people about their pasts, but had kept it conversational. People talked all the time about life before the war.

She re-read the e-mail. Miranda hadn’t specifically said what Ashley could ask her. Maybe it was something unrelated. She wracked her brain for possibilities. As far as she could tell, the journal hadn’t been touched. She was careful to not talk to herself out loud in case there was an audio bug on her terminal.

She pulled up the watch on her omnitool. She only had about 15 minutes before she had to leave, since she was still pretty slow on the stairs. She took several deep breaths and tried to clear her mind. The racing slowed, at least. And she wasn’t worried about keeping her heart rate down. She would have just climbed several flights of stairs, so a raised heart rate wouldn’t be suspicious.

She cursed silently. Miranda had trained to be a spy. Ashley Williams was best at problems that could be shot, punched, or blown up.

She picked the journal up to put it under her pillow. No sense bringing it into the den of suspicion. As she picked it up, her fingers brushed the Hemingway. She just hadn’t been in the mood to read it and should probably have returned it to the library. As she touched it, her eyes fell on the portrait on the back cover. She almost laughed at the way he was smirking at her from two and a half centuries ago. 

_ Well, _ she thought to herself.  _ Time to find the rest of this iceberg. _

\--

But first, the mountain. She stopped for a breather at the top of the stairs. She’d been reliably going up and down to the second floor library for a few days, but the old stone staircase to the tower was another matter entirely. She leaned against the wall and did circles with her sore ankle. It was a wide squarish tower, at least, with straight sections of steps. No spiral staircase. Small mercies.

She stood on the landing before a set of large wooden doors, slightly ajar, with scenes from Greek mythology carved into them. At the center of each door, the three-headed dog.

“Come on in,” Miranda’s voice called.

Well, then. Direct. Ashley tested her foot to find the stretching had helped, and pushed the door the rest of the way open.

She wasn’t sure what to expect in Miranda’s inner sanctum. What she found was a mix of old and new. At the far end of the room, a large four-post bed with velvet canopy and a duvet covered in both datapads and printed reports. There was a large wooden desk with decorative carvings of what looked like grapevines, a holo-projector on each side of the desk. The left showed a globe that was clearly Earth, with different location pins in different colors, and the other, the Milky Way galaxy. Miranda herself sat between them, back to the door, as data whizzed by on the terminal screen in front of her.

Around the room were what looked like maps and charts, again, both old and new. Some paper, some holo. A large section of one wall had been fitted with a large white canvas, onto which was projected another map of Earth with similar colored markers.

Miranda turned her chair to face Ashley. As she did so, she waved her Omnitool and the holographs all shut down. “Much better,” she said. “Hard to think sometimes with so many things going on.” She gestured towards a large wingback chair. “Make yourself comfortable. Coffee?”

Next to her desk stood a coffee pot. Miranda poured herself a mug.

Ashley shook her head. “It’s a little bit late in the day for me to have caffeine.” Miranda shrugged and took a sip.

Ashley sat in the chair and evaluated. Miranda was wearing similar attire to the other day, in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. A hoodie was draped over the back of her chair.

“This information was not encrypted, so no translation needed. But I thought you would want to know.”

Although Miranda had told her to make herself comfortable, Ashley sat perched on the edge of the chair with her back straight. Ready for fight or flight.

“The good news is we found Normandy. It’ll be a while before we can bring her home, but they have a medical team and supplies on the ground with the ship.”

“What’s the delay?”

Miranda sighed. “People know that the Relays are down, but it’s not common knowledge why they are down. It’s not a matter of functionality. Their engines are intact. It’s a matter of software.”

Ashley furrowed her eyebrows. “What’s wrong with the software?”

“It’s gone. When you were in the hospital, remember how long it took for them to do different tests? It would have taken Chakwas seconds to run those scans, but they had to do things by hand. Without assistance from VI.”

Miranda stared into her coffee cup. “We were hoping it was just our system, being so close to the center of activity, but everywhere in the Milky Way that we’ve been able to contact has reported similar intel.”

“But… the tech I’ve encountered seems to be working fine. I mean, yeah, e-mail was down for a while, but it’s back online. Omni-tools. Whatever gizmos you have going on in here.”

“These,” Miranda gestured towards her desk, “are glorified pocket calculators. I’m doing all the data analysis myself. Double-checking what field teams are reporting. But as far as we can tell, VI as we know it has been wiped out. And-”

Ashley cut her off. “EDI.”

Miranda nodded. “As far as Specialist Traynor has been able to figure out, she’s gone. There’s no trace of her on the ship.”

Ashley slumped back in her chair as she ran through, in her mind, the workings of the Normandy and its crew. “What about Tali?”

“She’ll make it. While the suits use VI, they were made very carefully not to rely on them. They have her quarantined just to be sure.”

Ashley blew the air she was holding out her mouth. Casualties were to be expected in a war. She knew that. This wasn’t her first time losing soldiers. But EDI wasn’t a soldier. “I never… I mean, I never really thought about AI being…” she was at a loss for words.

Miranda set the mug on her desk. “I know. She was special.”

“How is Joker handling it?”

“About how you’d expect. Using humor to deflect emotions only goes so far. I did send a counselor with the recovery team.”

Ashley nodded. “You really did think of everything.”

Miranda shrugged. “That’s my job.”

A silence hung in the air. Miranda picked up her mug and took a sip with Ashley under her gaze. Ashley might have placed money on a smirk hiding behind the steam. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat while different ways to phrase the question ran through her head, along with a silent prayer that Miranda would break the silence first.

“I’m still not clear. What, exactly, is your job?”

That was definitely a smirk. “I though Amelia would have told you.”

“Amelia? So it goes back that far, huh?”

“What, did you think she was pulling one over on you? No. She’s just an overexcited 22-year-old who can’t stop talking. I thought she might answer all of your questions without you even having to ask any.” A brief pause. “We’re rebuilding.”

“So all of this. The ships, the plans to launch people randomly into space if we lost. This castle. How did you…?”

Miranda shrugged again. “There were always three heads in Cerberus. When my father died, I was able to take control of most of his resources. At that point, the Benefactor -- and, no, even I don’t know who that was -- had disappeared, and The Illusive Man was wholly focused on the Reapers themselves that I was able to reclaim other resources. I knew anything I did that directly with the war effort would be noticed, so I did what I was good at. I made contingency plans.”

“And how do I know you’re not lying to me now?”

Another shrug. “What’s the best way to find out if you can trust someone?”

Ashley sighed. If it was a trap, it was a good one. Miranda never needed to look at Ashley’s journal. All she needed was the books Ashley was borrowing.

She ran through the possibilities in her mind as she looked over the room. Even with the tech turned off, there were papers scattered everywhere. Miranda’s desk alone had six empty mugs scattered about, along with some protein bar wrappers.

“If I find out you’re doing something shady or weird or if I get bad feelings, you know I’m gonna slug you, right?”

“Naturally. And if that’s the last of your questions, I should get back to my other work.” She glanced at the terminal and sighed. “22 new messages.”

“One last thing. Are you living on coffee? When’s the last time you ate?”

Miranda didn’t answer.

“I may not know this stuff,” she gestured at the desk, “but I recognize when someone is running on caffeine and adrenaline. Lucky for you I started my investigation with the kitchen. I bet I can talk Erik into getting something hot on a plate.”

Miranda sighed. “That would be great actually.”

\--

Just because she was going to start trying to trust Miranda didn’t mean she wasn’t going to let her off the hook. After the pool, Ashley put a few books and her datapad in a tote bag, and brought it to breakfast. There, she got an extra plate and loaded it with a hot, high-protein breakfast of scrambled eggs, some strips of bacon, and some toast for good measure.

Then, it was back upstairs.

The door was still cracked. She used her free hand to knock.

“Come in,” came the reply.

Miranda didn’t look up as Ashley slid the plate in front of her. She pulled a fork from the tote bag and set it next to the plate.

“You are an angel.”

Ashley shrugged. “With all of your plans, you literally never planned on breakfast for yourself?”

Miranda shrugged. “Triage,” she said, through a mouthful of toast. She swallowed. “And no special treatment just because I’m, well, me.” She flipped her hand over, waved the other over her wrist, and quickly spoke into the Omni-tool mic that popped up. “Sajid. Reports of a few hundred survivors bunkered down in a place called Bloomington, Indiana. The whole area is still without power. Looks like it’s… Auxiliary Library? Send teams Apollo 4B, Hestia 1C, and diversionary cargo for the looters.” She almost turned it off, then quickly added “And please tell me if they have librarians. We could use them.”

“Didn’t pack enough?” Ashley asked as she settled into the wingback. It really was a comfortable chair when she wasn’t getting bad news.

“Ha-ha,” Miranda intoned. “And yes. Without VI, they’ll be the next best thing for getting all of this kind of thing,” she waved around the room, “organized. Are you really going to sit there all day?”

Ashley propped her feet up on an ottoman. “Yep. Going to be a fly on the wall, monitor what’s going on, and make sure it’s on the level. And,” she added, “make sure you don’t give yourself a heart attack.”

Miranda waved a bacon slice in the air. “Good thing I’ve always had low cholesterol.” She shoved the slice into her mouth and ate as she scrolled through the inbound information.

Ashley lay Voltaire’s Candide across her lap. She just sat for a while and listened as Miranda received different sitreps, updated her information, and issued commands to at least two dozen different field operatives. At least, Ashley assumed they were field operatives. For all she knew, they were in similar command centers across the globe. In the lulls between information coming in and going out, Miranda was cross-referencing different resources and periodically talking to herself.

At one point, she stood up, stretched, and went to one of the tables with piles of papers on it. She shuffled through them and sighed.

“What’s up?”

“Printouts of manifests. In case of technology failure. No-one thought we’d need them so they’re not in any order.”

Ashley stood up. “I’m not sure if you were aware of this, but you can ask for help. If you trust me to look through your things.”

“Have at it. I’m looking for more medical supplies. General stuff. Bandages, tape, gloves.” She paused, thought, and added, “and after that, classroom supplies. We need to get kids back to some semblance of normal.”

Miranda returned to the desk, and Ashley took the spot at the table. She looked through the piles first to figure out what she was dealing with, and then began separating things into categories. There was still a significant mystery pile, but over the next few hours, she made good progress.

It also gave her a chance to see what Miranda had prepared for. Sure, there were things like underwater rescue supplies, but also several warehouses of farming equipment, divided up for large-scale and small-scale farms. Seed banks not only with seeds from Earth, but across the galaxy.

She brought the pile of medical supply manifests to Miranda, who rifled through them, pulled out a few pages, and transmitted the locations and supply numbers.

“Thank you.”

“Need any more gruntwork, let me know. In the meantime, I’m going to get us some lunch.”

Ashley was pleased to find that her ankle hardly protested on its second ascent of the day.

“Got sandwiches. PB&J or cheese and… I think this is pesto?”

“The second.”

Ashley set it down on the desk, secretly glad to have the peanut butter and jelly to herself.

She ate standing up, and then began to walk around the room and look at the different materials.

“Ashley, you grew up in a colony, right?”

“If we’re gonna work together, call me Ash. And yeah. Sirona.”

“Right on the edge of the Skyllian Verge.”

“That’s the one.”

“Hm. I think as we move forward out of triage, we have to think like we’re building colonies. Small cities, mostly independent. Obviously not going back to tribalism, but unless we start manufacturing fuel, we’re not going to be able to continue flying supplies everywhere. Somewhere over there is a project plan. I cobbled it together from a few different companies’ guides for setting up outposts. We all know they were geared towards profit, not the colonists’ needs. Would you give it a once-over? I’d like your input.”

Ashley shrugged. It wasn’t quite what she was expecting, but she looked through the folders on the desk. “This one? Earth Outpost Plan?”

“That’s the one.”

It was about an inch thick. Ashley glanced through it and saw a multitude of resources clearly pirated from other sources, including graphs of manufacturing vs agriculture ratios, flowcharts of command structures, and pros and cons of different types of local governance.

“What’s left of local governments?”

“Mostly wiped out. Government buildings of any kind were a preliminary target.”

“Hm.”

Silence for several minutes.

“Has anyone been out to test the large farm equipment?”

“Not yet. Why?”

“Well, a lot of them have proprietary systems. They won’t even start if the VI’s been tampered with, let alone missing. Manufacturers always said it was for safety, but we all know it was so people couldn’t upgrade or repair their own equipment.”

Miranda groaned. “We’ll get a team on it.” She sighed. “I wish Tali were here to help.”

“Me, too.”

\--

The next few days passed like that. Ashley reviewed different plans and gave her feedback, which Miranda accepted. Ashley began to learn more about how Miranda was working with two others, one in East Asia and one in Canada, each taking 16-hour shifts so they had two people available at all times and could stay reasonable within their own time zones. Miranda made the final call on big decisions. “At least for now,” she explained when Ashley frowned, “until we get some kind of democratic system up and running.”

Ashley warned Miranda several times about the risks of burnout, which Miranda mostly ignored, but at least began sitting away from her desk to eat lunch and stretching throughout the day.

One night, as Miranda began to power down her equipment, save the emergency alert on her Omnitool, she turned to Ashley. “Thank you, by the way, for all your help these past few days.”

Ashley shrugged. “It’s the least I could do. Hey, my directive, without contact from chain of command, is to use my judgment for the benefit of council races. Right now, what I have access to is humans.” She paused. “Ok, and a few dozen asari, one unit of turian troops who are doing their own thing, and a handful of krogan who weren’t going to listen to a thing we said anyway.”

Miranda smiled. “They’d listen to you. But what I mean is that I know I’m not always easy to work with. I appreciate that you feel comfortable giving me honest feedback as an equal. It’s not something I’m used to. It takes a smart, strong-willed person.”

Ashley blushed. “Thanks. Er, you’re welcome?” She paused. “I guess I’m not used to compliments like that.”

\--

The next day, they were working side by side when Miranda stretched, and Ashley heard a loud pop.

“See? Burnout isn’t just mental. It’s physical. You’ll destroy your back.” She stood up and moved behind where Miranda was sitting. “Let me take a look.”

“It’s nothing. It’s… oh, if it’ll keep you rubbing my shoulders, then it’s definitely something.”

“Very funny. C’mon, I can talk while I do this. So. They really found a few Drell hiding in Arizona?”

“M-hm. Mmmmm-hm.”

\--

A few days later, they had a conference call with as many asari as they could contact. Miranda made the announcement.

“I know many of you have been waiting for news of Thessia. We have received communication from scout ships. While we cannot verify, it looks like there was an attempt at a mass evacuation, and the search is on for any ships that may have escaped. The planet itself is dark.” She paused for several moments for the news to sink in. “We are so thankful for everything that you have done with us to help restore our own home planet. Once we are able to recalibrate our Mass Relay to send a ship to the Parnitha system, we will facilitate transport for any who wish to join that search. It may be a few weeks while the navigation is entered. You have time to make any decisions.”

After the call, Miranda sat on the edge of the bed while Ashley sat in the wingback.

“I wish I could have done something,” Miranda said quietly.

“You can’t save everyone, Miranda.”

Miranda scoffed. “I’ll damn well try.”

“I know.”

Ashley moved to sit next to Miranda, and put an arm around her shoulder.

“I know.”

\--

“Ash, you’ll never believe what we found.”

“You mean something less believable than anything that’s already happened?”

“Fair point. That group out in Indiana? A bunch of farm kids took shelter there. They were taking programming classes to work on tractors.”

“All right! Bet they’re pretty pleased you have some intact stuff for them to work with.”

“And it means we can actually use them.” 

“Wait. I thought you were going to try to get one of their librarians here to do some of this stuff?”

Miranda rolled her chair over to where Ashley was working. “I already know I enjoy working with you. Here, I want to get your thoughts on a few sites for planned outposts.”

\--

“Huh?” Ashley looked up from the report she was reading for the third time.

“You seem like you’re having trouble focusing today. Everything ok?”

Ashley set the report down and rubbed her eyes. “It would have been Sarah’s birthday today.”

“Your sister?”

Ashley nodded. “They all went to the safest place. The Citadel. I keep checking every report that comes in, and they’re all the same. No survivors. Nothing new to report.”

Miranda placed a hand on Ashley’s back.

“I’m sorry. If I had known, I could have handled those myself.”

Ashley shook her head. “No, it’s… probably good. Helps me grieve a little each time, y’know, instead of all at once.”

Miranda leaned over and the hand on Ashley’s back transformed into a surprisingly warm hug.

“If you say so. Please take care of yourself. Let me know if you need help, or a break, or anything else I can do to help take care of you.”

“You’re one to talk. At least you’re eating real food again.” Ashley reached up and rested a hand on Miranda’s arm. “Thank you, though. I appreciate it.”

“What do you think would be best for you? A break? Do you want to work on something together, or something else to keep your mind off of it?”

Ashley sighed. She wasn’t used to people actually asking her what she wanted. Even with the different projects they’d been working on, when Miranda wanted her opinion, it was for her expertise.

“I think something positive. Do you think if we put our heads together we can get the finishing touches on the first outpost plans today?”

“Absolutely.”

\--

Ashley popped the cork on the champagne bottle as she and Miranda listened to the broadcast. 2,237 humans, 3 asari, two drell, and one krogan had all volunteered to be part of the first outpost. All had been vetted for their ability to work as a team, and selected to create a balance of necessary skills.

“One for you,” Ashley said, as she handed Miranda a bubbly coffee mug. “And one for me.” She took a sip.

“For all of his terrible qualities, the man knew how to build a secure wine cellar. Shame none of the glasses survived.”

“Hey. We have something worth celebrating. This is classic colony kid celebration. You use whatever cup you have that you can hide from your mom.”

Miranda smiled. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Ashley smiled back. “Me, too.”

“I mean it. We wouldn’t have an outpost groundbreaking ceremony today without your help. I’d still be stumped on how to program a tractor.”

“We make a good team.”

“And you haven’t slugged me once.”

Ashley grinned.

Miranda continued. “I’m inclined to think you might even be fond of me.”

“So that’s all it takes? Not punching you? Pretty low bar, there, Miranda.”

Miranda rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.” She paused. “Normandy should arrive in a few days, and you’ll have an opportunity for you to work on some other things. If you want to. I didn’t want to jeopardize any working relationship until the outpost was launched. So. Are you? Fond of me?”

Ashley set her mug down. “Let’s see. Incredibly smart, attractive, works themselves way too hard, open to feedback and an occasional argument. Excellent selection of books, for once we actually have time for leisure reading again. You’ve got the Cerberus baggage, but it seems to have mostly, uh, been taken care of.” She paused for a dramatic flair. “Yeah, I’d say that’s the textbook definition of my type.”

Miranda grinned, set her cup down, and moved closer to Ashley. She reached out and rested her arms on Ashley’s shoulders. “Good. That’s settled, then. Now I just need to keep getting things set up, get some restaurants going, maybe a movie theater, so I can ask you on a proper date.”

“Didn’t you know?” Ashley said, putting her arms around Miranda’s waist and lacing her fingers together. “I’m a colony kid. Champagne with a hint of coffee from the mug? That counts enough for me.”

“You’re the expert.” Miranda reached up so her fingers were ensconced in Ashley’s hair and brought her in for a kiss.


End file.
